


New York, New York

by BansheeLydia



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: College, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, New York City, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2015-11-02
Packaged: 2018-04-29 15:58:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5133559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BansheeLydia/pseuds/BansheeLydia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written for the teen wolf bingo.</p>
<p>If he’s honest, out of their circle of friends, Isaac is right on the bottom of Stiles’ list of who he’d be happy to be going to the same city with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New York, New York

“The _Big Apple_ , dude.”

Scott slides an amused smile Stiles’ way. “Yeah, you’re really gonna fit in with the locals if you keep calling it that.”

Stiles grins and rolls onto his stomach, jamming his thumbs against the console in a desperate attempt to keep his character alive. 

He knows that for the first couple of months or so in New York, he’s going to be every bit the small-town-kid-in-New-York that he is; he’s probably going to embarrass himself like every tourist does in the city. But he can see himself fitting in, eventually. New York is everything he’s wanted for a while now. It’s his future. And now high school’s over and graduation’s done with and it’s a matter of weeks before he moves. 

“I’m proud of us, you know?” he says after a moment. “I mean, for a while I wasn’t sure we’d get this far...all of us. I never thought we’d get a future. But here we are. We made it, Scott.”

He honestly wasn’t sure they’d get here. But Scott, Kira and Malia are heading off to UCLA. Allison’s gone back to France for a year to figure out what she wants with her future. Lydia’s going to Harvard (not a surprise), Erica and Boyd were accepted into Berkeley (also not much of a surprise). Cora’s going to finish high school. Derek’s staying in Beacon Hills until Cora graduates, but Scott’s told Stiles that Derek’s been looking into getting his degree once Cora goes off to college. It feels like they’re all finally growing up, moving forward with their future.

It feels _good_.

His character gets his head blown off and Scott drops his console, so a second later his character gets ripped apart. They’re revived in the same building and Stiles smiles at Scott’s old habit. They’re always in it together. 

Scott gives Stiles a fond smile. “I know, Stiles. I’m proud of us too. I’m gonna miss you, man.”

Stiles bumps his shoulder against his best friend’s. “Of course you are. I’m a delight.” He doesn’t need to say he’ll miss Scott too; he knows.

They focus on the game for a while. Stiles has his Coke can on the ground with a long, curly straw, the end wedged in his lips so he doesn’t have to let go of the console to stay hydrated. Occasionally, Scott will pause the game so they can chomp on Twizzlers and chips before going back to kicking zombie ass.

“You know Isaac’s going to New York?” Scott says after a while.

Stiles slurps loudly until the can’s empty, then lifts his head. The straw rattles in the empty can, tipping it over until it rolls across the carpet, settling against one of Scott’s dirty sneakers. 

“He is?” he wrinkles his nose slightly.

Scott doesn’t miss his expression, rolling his eyes slightly. “I don’t get why you two dislike each other so much.”

“We don’t _dislike_ each other. It’s more like...a mutual acknowledgment that we have nothing in common, so we keep out of each other’s way.”

“You have plenty in common!” 

Which...okay, _fine_ , may be slightly accurate. He and Isaac are both sarcastic. They both like comics and _Star Wars_ , they both like English but hate Chemistry. But Isaac is...kinda cool in a way Stiles has never managed. His sarcasm is a lot more biting than Stiles’. His smirk is...admittedly kind of hot, but it’s never a pleasant one when he’s aiming it at Stiles. 

They’re not _not_ friends...but Stiles wouldn’t be quick to call them friends either. They usually end up in arguments when they’re in the same room – mostly not serious, just playful kind of banter, but it drives the others up the wall - and apart from swapping snarky comments, they don’t really talk or hang out. 

If he’s honest, out of their circle of friends, Isaac is right on the bottom of Stiles’ list of who he’d be happy to be going to the same city with.

“Zombie nurse on your right,” he tells Scott, switching the subject, and Scott is too focused on cutting down a hoard of the undead to respond. 

It’s not a huge deal. New York is a huge place. They probably won’t even bump into each other.

 

 

Stiles does settle in, eventually.

He loves the city. His workload is intense and he spends more time than he’d admittedly like shut in his dorm room, trying to get things done. But there’s also this huge sense of freedom from being at college and being in a city as big as New York. There’s a kind of anonymity that’s refreshing and comforting.

He learns how to live in the city. He learns which off campus coffee place is best for quick caffeine grabs between classes. He learns how to juggle class with socializing. His roommate isn’t a lot like him, but they get on okay and the guy isn’t a huge pain in the ass or anything. He makes friends. 

But he’s also...a tiny bit lonely.

It only really hits him at night, when he’s in bed, and he’s reminded of how far from home he is. He’d expected it to fade away once he settled in, but it doesn’t. He misses his dad. He misses Scott and his friends. He’ll see them at Thanksgiving, but he’s got tests to worry about before he can be excited about going home, and sometimes, it takes him a while to get to sleep because he feels so achingly empty with loneliness.

One night, he’s in bed, listening to rain slam against the window when his phone lights up, buzzing with a text. He grabs it, surprised to see Isaac’s name on the ID.

_hey. how u handling the city?_

Stiles considers the text for a good three minutes before finally thumbing out a response. _It’s cool. i like it. u?_

_me too. i like feeling like a no one._

Stiles reads it over and over, feeling oddly comforted to know that he’s not the only one running away from something. He gets why Isaac likes it; back home, he was constantly being looked at. Was constantly known as Isaac Lahey, the kid who got beat by his dad, then arrested for his murder. The weird kid who hangs around with Scott McCall.

Stiles has had that last one applied to him a lot of times, too. 

He gets why being somewhere where no one knows Isaac, where no one knows all about his past, is refreshing to Isaac. It’s refreshing to Stiles, too, to carve something new for himself. To forge his own path, away from the bad memories that used to keep him up at night.

_yeah. me too_. He finally replies.

He doesn’t get a text back from Isaac, but when he puts his phone back on his desk and rolls onto his belly, he manages to fall asleep a lot easier that night. 

 

 

They end up texting a lot after that. 

It starts with little messages here and there, checking in on how the other is doing. But then Stiles asks Isaac if his room gets as inhumanely cold as Stiles’ does, and Isaac makes some lame joke, and the little texts get more and more frequent.

Stiles will complain to Isaac about the food in the cafeteria. _i’m pretty sure the ‘surprise’ in the ‘sausage surprise’ is that the meat is made from pigeons_.

Isaac’s reply is instantaneous. _maybe they capture them from Central Park. the skinny ones with one leg missing; no one will notice if they’re missing..._

Stiles snorts loudly at the joke and tucks his phone away, unable to help from grinning as he finishes his food.

Isaac has a habit of making little remarks about his classmates, and he likes to send them to Stiles.

_group project. Fake Glasses has already fucked off. Hipster Blonde’s talking about making a mind map because ‘they’re, like, super vintage ways of studying!’ Pls end my misery._

Stiles is in a lecture, reading the text under the desk, and he tries hard to stifle his little snigger. _dude. u have blond hair. Ur a hipster. those scarves u wear r like 100% worse than fake glasses. Ur like Hipster 2.0._

_Fuck off :)_

Stiles is so thrown by Isaac using a smiley for the first time, like, ever since they started texting that he takes a few minutes to respond. _you’re such an asshole._

When he doesn’t get a reply after five minutes, he worries that maybe he’s actually insulted Isaac, but then his phone buzzes, drawing his gaze to Isaac’s text on the screen.

_:) :) :) :) :)_

He snorts before he can stop himself and his professor’s gaze snaps to him. Lips pressed together to prevent his grin, Stiles tucks his phone away, shaking his head slightly.

 

 

Stiles doesn’t see Isaac at Thanksgiving. He spends it like he has done ever since his mom died; with his dad, Scott and Mrs McCall. He’d half expected – and oddly hoped – that Scott would invite Isaac since he doesn’t have any relatives, but Scott tells him that Isaac’s spending it with Derek and Cora, which is...kinda nice, actually.

He doesn’t see him at all in Beacon Hills. He thinks he sees a flash of curls and a rich blue scarf in the grocery store, but by the time he rounds the aisle, the person’s gone, and he feels kinda weird for thinking it might be Isaac. 

He spends Christmas the same way as Thanksgiving, surprised to hear that Isaac’s spending it back in New York, alone. He feels kinda...off about that, until he gets a text from Isaac while he’s cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

_Merry Christmas._

Stiles smiles. _Merry Christmas. hope u got loads of obnoxious scarves._

_don’t think ur the person to be talking about obnoxious..._

He snorts. _bite me, Fido._

_:)_

He forgets about it when he gets back to college, too busy getting back into the swing of things. He sees Isaac, once, at a bar, and they exchange a sort of awkward smile but don’t stop to talk to each other.

Still, at the end of the night, he gets a drunk text from Isaac, and it makes him grin, this fond kind of feeling settling in his heart. 

He starts to feel lonely again. He has good friends, but none as close as his friends back in Beacon Hills, and it starts to settle behind his ribs like an ache. 

_do u ever just...miss home?_ he texts Isaac one night. His roomie’s talking to his girlfriend on Skype and its super cold, and he just can’t get warm.

He doesn’t get a response and he sighs, shoving his phone aside and pressing his face into his pillow. He should go get some food, or do some work, or _something_ productive, but he can’t quite gather the energy to drag himself up. 

Until Isaac shows up at his dorm.

His cheeks and the tip of his nose are pink from the cold, he’s got a thick scarf wrapped around his neck, and he offers a quick smile when Stiles just blinks at him.

“Do you want to grab some dinner?” 

Stiles doesn’t even pause, just nods and grabs his coat and hat. They walk side by side in silence, shoulders hunched to brace against the cold wind. Isaac doesn’t make him walk far, ducking into an all night diner. It’s bright and warm inside, the vibrancy of the interior comforting.

They sit down in a booth opposite each other. The stuffing’s spilling out of the red plastic bench and Isaac offers a little wry smile.

“Trust me,” he says, “The burgers are incredible.”

The burgers _are amazing_. They chat a little as they eat, swapping little stories about class and nights out, remembering things about home. 

While Stiles slurps at the dregs of his milkshake, Isaac looks at him before saying quietly, “I feel lonely a lot too.”

Stiles opens his mouth, then closes it and just nods. It feels nice to know that he’s not the only one. 

Isaac drops him off back at his dorm with a little parting smile and it’s weird to actually be on the receiving end of Isaac’s genuine smile, but also kinda nice.

After that, they grab something to eat together as often as possible. It’s nice, to have the company, and pretty quickly, Isaac feels like one of Stiles’ closest friends. He’s funny, sarcastic and dry, but he’s also kinda supportive in his own way.

Once, Isaac shows up at Stiles’ dorm with takeout. They take to studying together, either at Stiles’ or Isaac’s, one of them at the desk and one of them on the bed, just enjoying the quiet company of each other as they work. They hang out after, playing video games or just talking, and it’s amazing how quickly Isaac becomes so important to Stiles, a big part of his life, so much so that on the times they can’t hang out, he really misses him.

Isaac falls asleep on Stiles’ bed one night.

His soft snores make Stiles look up from his laptop. He looks so completely at ease, peaceful, and Stiles smiles, tucks the blanket over him. He falls asleep in his desk chair and when he wakes up in the morning, Isaac’s gone, but there’s a cup of coffee for Stiles on the desk.

 

 

He can’t quite pinpoint when he stops sleeping around.

It just sort of happens. Going out and having one night stands doesn’t really feel right anymore and he finds himself uninterested by people who express interest in him. 

It’s then that he realizes Isaac has become more. They’re not together, but they’re not just friends either, not with the way they act around each other, but neither one makes that move to progress things, so they settle into an oddly comfortable silence around the issue.

They start cuddling, sometimes, and occasionally, Isaac’s lips will brush against Stiles’ forehead. 

They don’t talk about it.

 

 

Not until five years later, when they’ve both got jobs in the city and an apartment and a cat together. Not until one night when they’re sat on the couch, watching a movie together, and Stiles feels so content that he can’t help but look up at Isaac and ask a question.

“Are we gonna get married someday?”

Isaac curls his fingers around Stiles’ ankle, stroking slightly as he smiles. “Yeah. And we’re having two kids. One girl, one boy.” His tone’s light, but Stiles knows he’s actually thought seriously about this, and his heart flutters.

He grins. “Maybe we should go on a date first.”

“Maybe.” Isaac agrees.

And he leans in, pressing a soft kiss to Stiles’ lips.

**Author's Note:**

> kirasmalydia.tumblr.com - come say hi? :)


End file.
